Monday, November 21, 2016

How Gnostic Are You?

Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom & God’s Wife

Relatively recently, I came upon a post written in 2010 by Robin Phillips that struck me in it’s declaration of the obvious. Entitled “8 Gnostic Myths You May Have Imbibed,” the author works through the following:

Christianity isn’t a Religion, it’s a Relationship

Salvation Means Going to Heaven When You Die

The Material World isn’t Important

Institutional Religion is Bad

It isn’t Going to Last Forever

Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this World

Knowledge saves

God Doesn’t Work Through Means

Be careful not to read into his opinions what is not there. For instance, at least half of my readers will bristle at the first point: the dichotomy of religion and relationship has become a sacred cow in evangelical circles. The author is not saying there is no individual aspect of Christianity, rather he is pointing out that evangelicals are, in effect, denying the corporate aspect from beginning to end. Take worship as an example. In too many congregations, though believers meet together in the same building at the same time, the entire worship experience is geared to allow individuals to be engaged in whatever way they choose and to take away from the teaching their own conclusions.

The same group that dislikes the first point will also dislike the last, but they do not realize that actually agree that God works through means. How is that? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom 10:17). That’s right. The means of grace every Christian acknowledges is God’s Word—the Bible. That is the means by which faith and grace was delivered to you that you might believed.

Give some serious consideration to the Phillips’ points and compare them against what you and your local assembly teaches and practices.